Diversify Your Prospecting

When in comes to prospecting, many people have the problem of running out of creative ways to stay in touch with people. I want to show you endless creative ways to get attention and stay in front of people and keep making yourself known. You must have lots of varied ways to continue to prospect the same people. There are many ways once you commit, but you have to get all in on it. I’ve said this a thousand times, but creativity follows commitment. If you’re not finding yourself very creative right now, you have a commitment problem.

There is no protocol or etiquette for you to follow here—the only wrong thing for you to do is not follow up and quit prospecting. Here’s how to have creative variety in your prospecting:

1.Your Power Base—Make a call to your power base. I’m talking about friends, family, customers, school mates, past employers, and past relations. Everyone has a power base. A guy who beat me up years ago is on that list. Just because he beat me up when I was 18 doesn’t mean he won’t buy a product from me 20 years later. Even enemies are part of my existing power base.

A power base is not something that stays one size. Throughout your life, it should have expanded bigger. I know people who have just 3 friends. You should have thousands of friends. Your power base will grow or cease to grow depending on how much attention you give it. Remember your power base has the word “power” in it—because it gives you power. You want to grow it and increase the quality of it as time goes on.

The place to start is with what you have.

Direct marketing companies and MLM’s are unbelievably effective because they depend solely on using and utilizing people’s power bases. Combine dedicated and relentless contact of power bases with lots of people, with great products, and you create a very profitable company during any economy. Mary Kay, Nu Skin, Herbalife—I can go on and on—are just a few examples of companies in which their entire model is based on one concept, power base.

When you activate your power base you’re going to find people you’ve forgotten about that are qualified and interested in buying your product. Make a list of everyone you’d consider in your power base if you haven’t already made the list. You need to put your list in a file or on a CRM, and then you need to make the calls. The purpose of the call is not to sell, but to reconnect, reenergize, and reactivate.

Your list can sit there ignored, but it’s still sitting there. The fact that you aren’t working that gold mine does not mean it’s less valuable. I can go climb into the mine that you abandoned and pull gold out. Don’t miss out on potential sales.

2.Service Customers—Customers who are currently getting serviced with your firm whether you sold them or not are a great opportunity. Most people see service customers only as service customers rather than how I see them—future prospects. The customer who comes in for a watch repair wanting a new band on it, many salespeople see them just as band buyers rather than a watch buyer. The customer who comes in for a watch repair is a watch buyer but nobody ever contacts them. Same thing for a guy in the tailoring department, he’s a suit buyer.

Businesses don’t put much emphasis on service customers because they are too dependent on mass advertising and marketing. Prospecting got lost as a priority when we got into the information age with TV and telecommunications. For me, service customers are a great source of new contacts. All problems are opportunities to solve problems. Money follows solutions. Get a copy of every service or repair order for your company. You want to stay in contact with your customer through service. Get out of obscurity, get attention, be of service, and make a contact.

3.Reactivating Sold Customers—Regardless if you haven’t spoken to John who you sold to 9 months ago, you can reactivate by using a call, a letter, an email, a text, a video, or a personal visit. If you can’t call the people who have paid you, you’re in trouble. You’re making life hard by not following people back up. Make at least 10 calls each day to past customers, whether they bought 3 weeks ago, 6 months ago, or 3 years ago. The purpose of this call is not to get out of obscurity, the purpose is to get them thinking about you again.

Your two problems are obscurity and people not thinking about you. People may know you but have forgotten about you. This is why you need to remind people you’re there and you are here to serve still. Make sure you update during the call all information with them, Twitter, Facebook, what they are doing and where they are in the buying cycle—get any useful information you can get. Then you want to set up a personal visit and get referrals if possible.

Handle any problems that come up in the call as an opportunity. Be sure and tell the client when the next time is you’ll be contacting them—always commit to another call. Knowledge is power, so get as much data as you can in this call.

4.Converting the Unsold—Go through all the people you’ve worked with and not sold. The fact that you didn’t close them doesn’t mean you give up on them. Old is still gold, just because you left the gold mine doesn’t mean it’s not still there. Maybe 6 months ago they couldn’t afford it, they weren’t quite ready, or had to delay purchasing for some other thing they were doing.

There are a lot of things you want to leave in the past, but don’t leave the unsold. Persist and don’t give up too early. It might take 5 calls to close someone and you gave up after 3.

I’ve just given you 4 different ways you can begin prospecting today: calling on the unsold, the sold, service customers, and your power base. Commit to prospecting today and you’ll begin to increase your income.

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